Budapest, Hungary - Sanyia Sabyan has lived on the streets of the Hungarian capital for six years, unable to return to his former job as a construction worker and not lucky enough to find a new job.

With his dog Artur, he sleeps on the streets each night, often facing police harassment and braving temperatures that fall far below freezing. "I haven't eaten today," the 47-year old told Al Jazeera, explaining that he makes sure Artur has food before ensuring that he feeds himself. "The police are always harassing me," he said.

In September 2013, the right-wing-dominated Hungarian parliament enabled local governments to criminalise sleeping in public spaces and "dumpster diving". Those who violated the law were to be sentenced to community work or fined.

The Supreme Court struck down parts of the law in 2015 because city governments could not demonstrate the "protected value" of those spaces.

Human Rights Watch has criticised the ruling for not banning "the local government from adopting a future decree and identifying the 'protected value' of public areas from where authorities aim to ban homeless people".

Sitting next to the entrance of the metro in Budapest's Blaha area, Csabi said he had been homeless on and off for the past four years.

"My girlfriend is eight months' pregnant," he told Al Jazeera. "She was recently diagnosed as HIV-positive. I tested negative. The doctor told her she can live for a long time if she takes medicine every day."

Csabi explained that he can usually negotiate with police to leave him alone. 'I have a lot of problems. I may only be 28, but I have been through so much that I am a 100 years old on the inside.' [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

During the winter month of January, Hungary's average temperature can reach minus 4C. Between 2006 and 2010, an estimated 131 homeless died of exposure in Budapest, according to the Homeless World Cup support group.[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

Many of the Budapest's homeless take refuge in the metro stations in search of some warmth. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

Several homeless people said that police force them out of the underground areas when the weather warms up in the spring. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

A newspaper is distributed to the homeless and others to inform them about news related to homelessness in Budapest. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

According to The City Belongs to Everyone, a Budapest-based activist group, more than 10,000 of the Hungary's 15,000 homeless people live in the capital. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

Meanwhile, the city's homeless shelters can only accommodate a mere 6,000 people, according to activists. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

Huddled under blankets in the doorway of a Hungarian bank, a man sleeps near a sign that reads: "Make your dreams come true." [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

A man sleeps under a sign providing directions to a homeless shelter. Next to it, another sign says that an important wall of Budapest's historic old city once stood on this spot. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]